mixdown media offline

Hello guys,
really need your help here.
I have a problem with several mixdowns gone media offline, after being accidentally rendered on external hard drive which is since dead. is there any way to know which exact clips were used for those video mixdowns? they were in complex compositing plans with lots of effects (I used to mixdown to gain time for timewarping after using 3d warp, luma key, flopping etc) hope there is an easy way for at make Avid point at those exact clips to re-do the compositing... match frame obviously doesn't work. panics!!!

Sorry, but unless you layered those mixdowns on top of the footage, there is no way of knowing what they were made of. They are simply video files...no data links them to the clips they were made from.

Video Mixdowns are VERY dangerous, and you see why. You can't match back to the sources, and if you lose them, they are gone. No way to re-create them unless you layer them on top of the videos you made them from. Online really doesn't like Video mixdowns...by the way.

If you have to do them, for compositing and effects reasons, then you need to keep the sections they were made from, either on the timeline, or as separate sequences. And you need to render them out very high resolution...and what they are made FROM should also be high resolution. Mixdown comps should not be made when cutting in an offline resolution. Recreating what was done might be very tricky to duplicate after you bring the footage to full res.

Sorry...now you see why this is discouraged. I only use them when temping what I want Graphics to recreate, or when exporting for one reason or another.